Lilo and Stitch

I remember the first time I saw Lilo and Stitch, I had no idea what I was getting into. Honestly, it didn't really stick to me as a Disney movie that I really connected with or incredibly enjoyed. I thought it was well made, but it didn't really make an impact on me. Furthermore, this movie kind of came out around the time that I was getting a little bit old for cartoons. I still saw it but I wanted something more. I think my sister connected more with this movie and I understand why. Watching it when I'm 22 now, I've come to enjoy it a lot more. Does it have a bigger meaning years later? Well...

Lilo and Stitch starts in space when an alien government is putting an insane scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba (voiced by David Ogden Stiers) on trial for creating an illegal life form. This life form of course is the blue alien Experiment 626 (later to be known as Stitch).

In short, 626 escapes on a spaceship crashing towards Earth. The aliens think he will drown at first but they then figure out he landed on the island of Hawaii. Jumba is tasked to go after Stitch and bring him back with the help of another alien who is an Earth expert named Agent Pleakley (voiced by Kevin McDonald).

Now as a kid, this was the part of the movie I actually liked the most. It had a flair of Star Wars to it that I liked to speculate on and imagine all the fun stuff that happened. So when the movie turned its focus to a pair of sisters in Hawaii, I was a little bit less interested.

But now, I actually think the part with the sisters is actually the better part of the movie.

Enter Lilo and Nani (voiced by Daveigh Chase and Tia Carrere, respectively). Nani is quite a bit older than Lilo and since their parts tragically died before the movie, she has to take care of Lilo.

The thing is, Lilo is a very rambunctious little girl and is quite the handful to take care of. Furthermore, Nani is her sister, not her mom. That makes the relationship even greater.

I don't know what it is, but the relationship between Lilo and Nani is just phenomenal. I watched a review of this film where the critic said, why couldn't they have just made the movie about these two and excluded all the parts in space and all the parts with the weird space aliens. I actually have to agree because Lilo herself is just hilarious.

I really didn't notice it as a kid but Lilo is incredibly entertaining just when she's doing her own thing.

What's more is I never realized how young Lilo is. She's really young. I would not be surprised if she's like 4 or 5 in this film. And yet she says these things that are just hilarious and they're things that I might guess a really smart and misunderstood 4 or 5 year old might say.

The great part is the two sister do love each other. They are dealing with the loss of their parents and Nani is trying her best to help Lilo, but she herself needs Lilo just as much as Lilo needs her. Again, its a great relationship.

But back to the plot, Nani is trying to get her and Lilo's life in order because a social worker (voiced by Ving Rhames) is watching her closely and is threatening to take Lilo away if Nani can't provide a stable household for her.

So that is the plot of the movie... plus the fact that Lilo adopts Stitch when he is mistaken for a dog at a pound and Stitch, being more intelligent than he lets on, uses Lilo as a sort of shield to avoid being captured or killed by Jumba and Pleakley.

Don't get me wrong, Jumba and Pleakley are kind of funny. I mean it is Richard McDonald we're talking about here, the more I watch with him the more I just enjoy everything he's in. But I just hear the voice of that critic that said, if this movie had more of the relationship between Nani and Lilo and less of the aliens, this would actually be a great film.

While Stitch is forced to be Lilo's pet, he acts out because he is a monster with a primary directive of destruction. Lilo basically sets out to teach him how to be good.

The weird thing is, that never actually happens. Stitch continues to act out, he continues cause destruction and I'm not totally sure the movie ever gives itself the chance to develop a really great relationship between Lilo and Stitch, which you think would be the primary purpose as the movie is called Lilo and Stitch.

There's a little bit of an analogy of the ugly duckling as Stitch's new directive is to find a family or something like that and that does tie into the idea of Ohana which of course everyone and their sisters has said over and over again.

But I think a huge opportunity was lost when trying to make this film about family when it probably should have been about loss and staying together as a family.

That doesn't totally mean that the character of Stitch is a horrible character. He's not, he's actually really funny and I understand why people have gravitated towards him as a lovable Disney character.

Unfortunately, to me, Stitch has never gone down as one of the greats. He's unique sure, but he's not so iconic that I couldn't imagine Disney without him. Let's just be honest, Lilo and Stitch is not the first movie that comes to mind when you think of Disney cartoons. And that's okay, it was near the tail end of the animated films and its definitely not the worst of the animated bits.

There are great things about Lilo and Stitch. And yeah, years later, I do enjoy this movie a lot more because I understand it more than I did as a kid when all I saw was this cute blue monster crawling around Hawaii. The movie I think has its strengths but I also think it has its weaknesses. The weaknesses are not glaring, its just some parts are done better than others. I did come out of this movie a second time with a better appreciation for it.

But those are my thoughts on Lilo and Stitch. What about you? What do you think of Lilo and Stitch? Have you seen it since you were a kid? What do you think of it now as opposed to then? Comment and Discuss below! Also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 in order to get updates on movie news and reviews and shoot me a message on your thoughts and requests for future reviews!

I'll leave you with this. Something I really do like about this film is the music and the setting. Yeah you've got the Elvis Music which I love, but you've also got the Hawaiian setting and music. I really do think this is a really fun set up for the film and a really good song to start off with. Enjoy!